Reverence is the sense that there is something larger than the self, larger even than the human, to which one accords respect and awe and assent. - Ursula Wiltshire Goodenough

The most reliable joy is to be out of doors, to be a creature among other creatures. I find it very restful.

Sex without death gets you single-celled algae and fungi; sex with a mortal soma gets you the rest of the eukaryotic creatures. Death is the price paid to have trees, and clams and birds and grasshoppers, and death is the price paid to have human consciousness, to be aware of all that shimmering awareness and all that love.

You can't have thought without emotion, and one emotion is fear, and making an important decision on the basis of fear is not a good idea. So develop your courage.